Environment

The Bethel Fire Department responded to the Kilbuck school building for a report of a second fire.

According to a press release from the fire department, this morning around 7 a.m., firefighters received a report of smoke coming from the remaining part of the building formerly used by the Kuskokwim Learning Academy. Fire crews found a fire in an old classroom.

Bethel City Council has voted 6-1, with Mayor Rick Rob in opposition, for the city to submit comments on the Donlin Gold draft environmental impact statement.   

Keith Gordon with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is leaving his position as Project Manager of the Donlin Gold mine draft environmental impact statement, or EIS.

“Nothing changes,” Gordon said when asked how his departure affects the project. “The agency will just continue with the processes.”

If you’ve been walking through Bethel in the evening or night lately you might have noticed a number of unusual furry moths. There’s rumors that the creatures are an invasive and highly destructive species called the Gypsy Moth. They aren’t. 

Upriver Kuskokwim ice remains mostly in place, according to the annual River Watch crew from the National Weather Service.

The team is flying the Kuskokwim River this week, collecting break up data and reporting ice conditions to communities. The crew landed in Aniak Wednesday and flew upriver to observe the river.

The earliest break up on record has begun in the middle Kuskokwim, but ice is still holding in the upper and lower sections of the river. That’s the results from an aerial survey by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which photographed the Kuskokwim from the Holitna River tributary to Napakiak on Monday.

Middle Kuskokwim river ice is shifting and jamming as what’s predicted to be the Kuskokwim’s earliest break up on record gets underway.